Child
of Chaos
A Ugandan reimagines
his homeland's history
By PAUL GRAY
Any novel
that begins with a man on the brink of being eaten by a crocodile
stands a good chance of engaging a reader's attention. Moses
Isegawa's Abyssinian Chronicles (Picador; 462 pages) not only
opens with such a bang, or crunch, but also manages to sustain
the narrative fireworks over a long, complex haul.
The novel is, ostensibly, the coming-of-age story of its narrator, Mugezi, who is born in a tiny Ugandan village in the early 1960s and who grows up to witness firsthand his country's plunge into chaos under the dictatorship of Idi Amin during the '70s. Mugezi does more than set down his experiences. He also gives intimate details of the wedding night of his father Serenity and his mother Padlock; notes the later occasion of his own conception and, near the end, provides a detailed account of his parents' deaths, even though their bodies are never found and their friends have no idea what happened to them.
Mugezi's uncanny omniscience takes some getting used to, but the effort is worth making. Isegawa's method of portraying a broad swath of history through the wise eyes of a young observer has precedents in such reality-bending epics as Günter Grass's The Tin Drum and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Mugezi and all the members of his extended family play out, in microcosm, the upheavals of postcolonial Africa: the diaspora from stable rural societies into hectic cities governed by money rather than loyalties. Mugezi learns that he must be devious and tough simply to stay alive. For a while, he idolizes Amin's power and intransigence. But this feeling fades, and the stroll he takes through anarchic Kampala, his adopted urban home, just after the overthrow of Amin in 1979 becomes a harrowing hell. Precious few first novels are as phantasmagoric or as haunting as this one.
|
|
|
November 6, 2000
| NO. 44
SOCIETY
AND SCIENCE
COVER
: Is Divorce Bad for Kids?
A controversial book argues that the damage caused when parents split
is graver than suspected. Should unhappy adults stay together for their
kids' sake?
Viewpoint:
Katha Pollitt on divorce's bum rap
SOUTH
PACIFIC
AUSTRALIA:
Trials of the Regiment
The armed forces have fine policies on violence and sexual equity, but
have they the will to implement those rules?
T
H E A R T S
FESTIVALS:
The Pacific is rediscovered in New Caledonia
CINEMA:
Omar Epps hopes Love & Basketball is a slam dunk
BOOKS: Steve
Martin gets serious in his novella Shopgirl
Margaret Atwood's
sinuous tapestry of family secrets
A Ugandan novelist's
haunting look at his homeland
TRAVELER'S
ADVISORY
|
|
